I’m taking part in an event for the People’s Parliament under the above title on Tuesday, Dec 16th, 6.30-8.30 pm in Committee Room 16 of the House of Commons. Along with the Tax Justice Network I have long argued that the scale and power of the City of London and support TJN’s view that there is a Read the Rest…

I note that the Department for Education has defined Britishness. According to the Telegraph: The Department for Education named the “fundamental” values as democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, and “mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”. I thought I should apply this to the City of London’s lawyers, about whom Read the Rest…

I vividly recall conversations with John Christensen in the early days of the Tax Justice Network when we discussed the threats we were really up against in taking on this campaign in 2003. Back then we appreciated that at its core we were in a fight for democracy itself. We first framed that in the context Read the Rest…

I thought that this exchange between John Githongo and Alex Cobham on twitter last night was interesting: John Gothingo is a former Kenyan journalist who investigated bribery and fraud in his home country and later, under the presidency of Mwai Kibaki, took on an official governmental position to fight corruption. In 2005 he left that position, later accusing top ministers Read the Rest…

Nick Shaxson’s Vanity Fair articles have impact. One broke the story of Mitt Romney’s offshore tax affairs. And, of course, he wrote Treasure Islands. He’s also a Tax Justice Network team member. In his latest article he asks who really lives at One Hyde Park, called the world’s most expensive residential building? Its mostly absentee owners, hiding behind offshore corporations based Read the Rest…

I’ve quoted once already from an article on the City of London that George Osborne wrote in 2006, but I think it worth doing so again. In this Telegraph article he said as a conclusion: [W]e need to get the City’s infrastructure right. It needs robust security to protect its streets and electronic communications. It Read the Rest…

In 2006 George Osborne wrote: A party that aspires to be the next government and wants to prepare Britain for the challenges of the next century has got to understand the City’s priorities. Nothing could have been clearer about what he saw his priority to be: keeping his friends in the City happy was his task. His first objective in fulfilling Read the Rest…